


Borders

by palominopup



Category: Supernatural
Genre: AU, Doctor Castiel, Doctor Dean, Gen, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-28
Updated: 2018-06-28
Packaged: 2019-05-30 00:44:59
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,711
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15085325
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/palominopup/pseuds/palominopup
Summary: Doctors Without Borders sends two doctors to Colombia. They meet and become friends. Can they become more?





	Borders

**Author's Note:**

> With the immigrant children in the news, I've been in a funk. My country has become a place I don't know anymore. I wrote this little bit of fluff to combat my feelings of helplessness.

 

“Isabella.”

“No.”

“No?” Cas asked, his brow lifted in confusion.

“No. Some asshat will shorten it to Belle and then you’d have the whole Disney princess thing going on,” Dean said, eyeing the newborn. “I’d name her Calliope.”

Cas’ eyes drifted from Dean to the infant. She was only a few hours old. Her black hair and tawny skin was striking next to the white hospital sheets. “Calliope? The muse from Greek mythology?”

“Oh… sure,” Dean replied, his face turning an attractive shade of pink. He reached out an index finger and traced the baby’s cheek. “She’s got a rough life ahead of her.” Cas didn’t want to think about that, so he posed a question.

“Why Calliope?” There was a story here and he wanted to know it.

Dean sighed dramatically. “Promise not to laugh?” Cas nodded and Dean once again dropped his eyes to the newborn. “When I was a kid, our babysitter watched this stupid soap opera called Days of Our Lives. There was this quirky character named Calliope and I thought she was pretty. I remember telling the sitter that if I ever had a baby, I would name her Calliope. At the time, I thought boys could have babies too.” Dean’s face was beet red by the time he finished the story. Cas could almost picture Dean as a small boy, face dusted with freckles… so innocent.

“Then Calliope she shall be,” Cas announced, making a notation in the chart, scratching through _infant girl_ with his pen. Since she was officially an orphan, he would take the liberty of giving her a name.

The mother had been brought to the Doctors Without Borders base camp before dawn, a victim of local violence in the port city of Tumaco. Cas and Dean had done their best to save the young teen, but the three gunshots did too much damage. She had no identification and there was no wedding band on her finger. She’d been almost a child herself. They’d delivered the child and while the infant was small, she seemed healthy.

Dean nudged Cas away from the metal crib and they exited the tent, leaving the baby in the care of one of their nurses. Cas glanced at the activity around them. A new shipment of medical supplies had arrived that morning. He knew vaccines for the Colombian children would be in one of the crates.

Dr. Castiel Novak was proud of the time he could give the organization every summer. It took him from the comfort of his home and job in Boston and dumped him into impoverished areas of the world in countries like Syria, Haiti, and now, Colombia, but he wouldn’t trade his time for the world.

His gaze fell to Dean, who was peering into one of the crates. Dr. Dean Winchester… here from Lawrence, Kansas… a trauma surgeon. They’d been working side by side for the last three weeks and had become fast friends. If Cas was honest with himself, he’d admit that he was already in love with the other doctor. Dean didn’t see him that way though.

“Hey, Cas, they sent twice the suture kits as last time. Guess your bitchin’ paid off.” The bitchin’ Dean was referring to was the call to his brother, a senator for the great State of Massachusetts. Sometimes it paid to know people in high places.

The rest of their day consisted of vaccinating children and patching up various wounds from the villagers.

Meg, their head nurse, found them taking a much needed break down on the beach. She held a clipboard. “I need the signature of the doc who delivered the kid this morning.” She held up a pen.

Cas reached for it. “Is she alright?” He asked, concerned. He’d checked on Calliope several times over the last eight hours.

“Right as rain,” Meg said, holding out the paperwork. “A rep from the orphanage is on their way to pick her up.” Cas’ hand fell, not taking the clipboard.

“Already?” His tone must have showed his feelings because Dean moved closer to him.

“Hey, talk to me.” Meg looked back and forth between them, but kept her mouth shut.

“I’ve… just… I can’t…” Since holding Calliope for the first time, tiny fantasies had taken hold of his thoughts. Suddenly, those fantasies were in danger of being ripped from him. “Meg, stall them.”

He was aware of how crazy he sounded and Dean was blinking at him, concern and curiosity in his expressive eyes. “Cas?”

“I have some calls to make,” Cas blurted out and took off at a run toward his living quarters.

Cas heard the steady thud of Dean’s boots behind him, but he didn’t stop until he was at his tent. Dean caught him by his shoulder. “Dude, stop and tell me what’s going on in the huge brain of yours.”

“I can’t let her go, Dean,” he implored, praying Dean would understand.

Dean stared at him and Cas could almost hear the wheels turning in Dean’s mind. “So… what… you want to adopt her?”

The question brought back old prejudices that he’d dealt with all his life. “Is that so hard to understand? Is it morally wrong for a gay man to want a child? Even the more progressive states like Massachusetts sometimes have issues with adoptions by…”

“Whoa, Cas. I’m on your side here,” Dean said, his hands raised like he was calming a terrified animal.

They never talked about their sexual orientations. Other than the initial ‘You married? No, neither am I’, their conversations revolved around other subjects. Cas had observed Dean flirting with one of the nurses – a female nurse – so Cas had assumed his friend was straight. “Gay, straight… whatever… becoming a parent isn’t a split second decision, Cas. I’m just trying…”

“This wasn’t a _split second_ decision, Dean. I’m forty-two years old. Finding someone to share my life with has proven impossible. I want a child before it’s too late.”

Dean looked down, his hands deep into the pocket of his cargo shorts. He’d lost weight since they’d arrived and they sagged, showing the elastic waistband of his underwear. “It’s not impossible,” he mumbled.

“It is, Dean,” Cas exclaimed. “I’m an introvert who is married to his job. The men I’ve dated in the past don’t stay. They say I’m not attentive enough to their needs. I’ve accepted that, but it doesn’t mean I can’t love a child.”

“What about your needs… huh?” Dean glared at him, hands gesturing wildly now. “Sounds like you picked the wrong guys. Love is a two-way street. It’s give and take. Sure, you have a job that isn’t always nine to five. You… you need someone who understands that sometimes you’ll miss dinner or an anniversary… but they love you anyway.”

“I can’t find someone like that, Dean.” Dean’s eyes seemed to be trying to communicate something to him, but Cas didn’t understand.                             

“Maybe he’s right under your nose,” Dean whispered.

“Who… oh…” All the pieces fell into place. All the times Dean refused the invitations of the other staff to go into town for drinks, so he could keep Cas company. The questions about Cas’ job at Massachusetts General. The casual touches Cas attributed to close quarters. Cas swallowed. “You have feelings for me?”

Dean shrugged. “I guess.”

“You guess?” Cas asked incredulously.

Dean’s smile made Cas’ heart skip a beat. “Yeah, depends on if you have _feelings_ for me.”

Cas hid his own smile. “If I said I _did_ have these ‘hypothetical’ _feelings_ for you…” Cas used air quotes and secretly loved the way Dean rolled his eyes. “What would you do about it?”

“First off, I’d kiss you because I’ve been wanting to do that since Day One and then, we would figure out how to take Calliope home with us.” _God, he loved Dean_.

“I love you, Dean,” he said solemnly, as if making a vow. Dean’s face lit up and then his arms were full of all six feet something of solid man.

As first kisses went, it was sloppy and there might have been some blood drawn accidently, but Cas wouldn’t have changed a thing.

 

**Six Months Later…**

 

Dean’s phone pinged and he looked at the screen, frowning. “Gotta go, babe.” He untangled himself from Cas and then bent to kiss his new husband of six days.

Cas watched Dean jog up the stairs to their bedroom. Dean was on call tonight. This was their life now. Juggling two stressful careers in medicine, a baby, and unpacking boxes in their new home.

Calliope was asleep in her swing and Cas got lost in the hypnotizing back and forth motion for a moment.

Dean appeared again, dressed in scrubs. He placed a gentle kiss on their daughter’s head, a tricky feat to do without stopping the motion. Then he leaned in to kiss Cas. “Don’t wait up. You have surgery in the morning.”

“Yes, Mom.”

Wiggling his eyebrows, Dean said, “You can call me Daddy.”

“Go,” Cas huffed, shaking his head and grinning.

A few minutes later, he heard the rumble of Dean’s Impala in the garage. He closed his eyes and let his body relax on the couch. Closing his eyes, he thought back over the last several months.

It hadn’t been easy. The adoption process was expensive and there had been miles of red tape, but Dean was beside him for the entire journey. Dean’s transfer to Boston wasn’t a walk in the park either. Massachusetts General didn’t have a slot for a trauma surgeon and he’d had to take a cut in pay. He seemed to be enjoying his job in the emergency room though.

Cas stretched and rose to his feet. He’d tuck Calliope into her crib and catch a few hours of sleep himself. She was having trouble sleeping through the night and he knew he be up around three to feed her. She made soft sucking sounds as he picked her up, but didn’t wake.

At the top of the stairs, his eyes fell on the picture of the three of them outside an office building in Bogota after signing the final papers making Calliope theirs. He kissed the downy hair on her head. His life was complete.


End file.
